# Programmable Silicon Photonic Optical Thresholder

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.07067 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07067/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 23 Jul 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [High Throughput Multi-Channel Parallelized Diffraction Convolutional Neural Network Accelerator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.12297/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We experimentally demonstrate an all-optical programmable thresholder on a silicon photonic circuit. By exploiting the nonlinearities in a resonator-enhanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), the proposed optical thresholder can discriminate two optical signals with very similar amplitudes. We experimentally achieve a signal contrast enhancement of 40, which leads to a bit error rate (BER) improvement by 5 orders of magnitude and a receiver sensitivity improvement of 11 dB. We present the thresholding function of our device and validate the function with experimental data. Furthermore, we investigate potential device speed improvement by reducing the carrier lifetime.